IDI’s Young Leadership Forum was founded by IDI President Dr. Arye Carmon in 2009, in order to motivate young Israelis to become involved in public dialogue and political discourse, and to generate grass-roots support for IDI’s advocacy in the realm of political reform. Headed by Ms. Dafna Gruber, Director of IDI's Youth Division, the Young Leadership Forum is an integral branch of IDI’s Forum for Political Reform in Israel.
The Young Leadership Forum was established to attain the following goals:
- To produce a cadre of young leaders who will engage in advocacy in the public and in the media and will impact Israeli public opinion regarding the need for political reform and to strengthen Israeli parliamentary democracy.
- To provide young Israelis with a platform for discourse about democracy, as well as up-to-date research and tools for implementing ideas and initiatives related to democracy.
- To strengthen the relationship between the younger generation of Israelis and the state and its institutions, and to establish a solid basis of trust between them.
- To encourage young people to actively participate in the political, social and public aspects of Israeli life, in order to influence the future of the country.
The Forum is made up of forty exceptionally gifted young people from a wide range of backgrounds, who all share a deep commitment to the values of Israeli democracy and a desire to strengthen Israel’s democratic institutions. All Forum members possess extensive leadership experience, and have all been involved in student organizations or positions of communal responsibility in the past.
The Young Leadership Forum offers a wide range of activities and platforms for discourse that are designed to redress the disillusionment and alienation that young people in Israel feel towards the political arena. One such activity is an annual speech competition that was launched in 2010. Entitled "From an Apathetic Young Person to a Caring Politician,” the 2010 speech contest was conducted in conjunction with the NRG website and attracted hundreds of contestants and thousands of on-line voters. Following the success of the first year, the 2011 speech contest, which was dedicated to the theme of "Different but Equal – Building Solidarity in a Diverse Society," was conducted in conjunction with a wide range of partners including Ynet, Israel's leading on-line news portal, Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, and the National Union of Israeli Students.
IDI’s Young Leadership Forum was the first IDI project to utilize social media to convey information and mobilize involvement. The Forum's popular Facebook page (Hebrew) serves as a framework for lively debate about Israeli democracy. With 5,000 fans, it provides a virtual, pluralistic forum that enables university students and young people from across the political, social, and religious spectrum to raise issues for discussion, respond to IDI research, and engage in productive dialogue.
Members of the Forum regularly participate in IDI conferences and roundtable discussions, which empower them to further the Forum’s goals. In December 2010 and March 2011, they spearheaded a "Politics Week" at Bar-Ilan University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It is our hope that the fresh outlook, creativity, and enthusiasm of the members of the Young Leadership Forum coupled with IDI's knowledge, experience, and research will be able to effect significant change in Israeli society and advance the cause of political reform.